My favorite store cat

Bookcourt has long been my favorite book store – they have a great selection, free readings, friendly staff, a convenient location, reasonable hours… the list goes on. It’s hard for me to resist buying a book whenever I walk by or go in (my husband and I are hopeless book addicts… I try to use the library, but Bookcourt gets to me). A while back, they expanded, which delighted me. Then I found out they had acquired a cat! I was told that the cat’s name is Francis, and he appeared one day during renovations. First the mice came, then the cat. Francis, an adorable tabby, made himself useful chasing the mice away, then ingratiated himself with the folks at the store, and then the customers. He’s now a permanent fixture, often found lounging on the books or walking around getting petted. I’d been meaning to blog about Francis for a while, but Racked beat me to it, in their wonderful “Store Sidekicks” series. At any rate, I hope Bookcourt and Francis have many more happy years together!

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Keith & Lulu

This man/cat duo consists of human being Keith and feline Lulu. I think they look like they have very similar expressions on their faces in this photo – clearly they are soulmates. Keith adopted Lulu when she was a kitten and reports she’s now turned into (not suprsingly)… a cat. He says, “I equate the stage she is going through now as her kitty teen years. Rebelling, ripping up stuff, doing things just for spite and then being all warm and cuddly when she wants something. She’s a great cat.” Spoken like a true cat appreciator! Keith gets extra bonus points for adopting Lulu from Brooklyn and for having a good Lester Bangs quote in his e-mail signature.

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Beautiful pictures of the boys

My friend Jimmy took these great photos of the boys. I think they really capture their personalities. Plus, it’s really difficult for me to get a picture of Thurston while he’s awake, because he keeps trying to nuzzle my hand while it’s holding the camera. Jimmy insists on calling Charley “Charles” for some reason, and here he is peeking out from behind his favorite lamp.

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Chatterwauling

My husband loves to point out neologisms to me, and recently came up with a good one of his own.

Charley, our always peppy tuxedo cat, likes to run around chattering (this sounds something like “meowmeowmeow, meow mow mrrr mow mow mrr meow” – maybe I’ll attempt to get an audio recording at some point and post it), and occasionally he will let out a caterwaul (usually in the middle of the night). The other day, he seemed to be especially chatty AND caterwaul-y, and my husband said to him, “Charley, stop chatterwauling.”  Voila! A neologism.